Ep 143: Food or Alcohol: Where Should You Start?

Struggling with both overeating and overdrinking and not sure where to start? This episode explains how alcohol rapidly enters the brain, lowers executive control, spikes dopamine, and disrupts sleep and blood sugar, which can make food choices harder. 

You’ll learn why sweets often surge for a couple of weeks after removing alcohol (totally normal), how to run a simple 72-hour alcohol-free test, and a gentle 7-day plan to build momentum (protein + fiber early, a short-term after-dinner sweet swap, a quick “dopamine menu,” sleep guardrails, and Scripture + accountability). 

We also point you to my conversation with Denise Jelinek on Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit for a faith-first, practical companion to this topic: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/alcohol/id1708433539?i=1000722465416

Note: if you may be physically dependent on alcohol, please consult a medical professional before changing your intake. 

If you have ever...

• Struggled with the social pressures associated with alcohol use.
• Felt isolated, alone, and unsure of how to break the cycle.
• Experienced shame and frustration after drinking.
• Told yourself, “I’ll never get this. It’s no use.”

Then this 5-Day Sacred Sobriety Kick Start is for you! 

Each day, you’ll receive a short video with simple tasks to help you analyze your drinking habits with clarity.

I'm here for you. I'm praying for you. You are NOT alone!

Please subscribe to this podcast so you won't miss a thing!

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Visit my Website: https://thecatholicsobrietycoach.com

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome & Why Order Matters
• 2:17 The Food Reset That Changed Everything
• 5:27 Night A vs Night B: A Clear Contrast
• 7:52 Dopamine, Control, and Cravings
• 10:45 Sleep, Stress, and Glucose Disruption
• 13:25 Short-Term Sweet Spikes Explained
• 17:37 Simple Swaps for Steadier Evenings
• 19:58 Four Questions to Find Your Start
• 21:53 Faith Lens with Denise Jelinick
• 23:49 Benefits of Removing Alcohol
• 26:39 Seven-Day Starter Plan Framework

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Catholic Sobriety Podcast, the go-to resource for women seeking to have a deeper understanding of the role alcohol plays in their lives. Women who are looking to drink less or not at all for any reason. I am your host, Christy Walker. I'm a wife, mom, and a joy-filled Catholic, and I am the Catholic sobriety coach. And I am so glad you're here. Hello friends. Today we are asking the question: should you start with food or alcohol? Because let's be honest, both can feel like they're running the show sometimes. Sugar, I've been there. Scrolling Instagram at 10:30 p.m. when I promised myself I'd be in bed by 10. Yeah, I've been there too. We all have our little comfort buttons. But here's what I want you to hear. For a long time, I didn't feel well. I was tired. I had stomach cramps in the evenings. My brain was foggy. My sleep was restless. And I thought that was just life or my age, or maybe I just wasn't disciplined enough. But when I finally did an inflammation diet, which is basically an anti-inflammatory reset, I discovered that some of the foods I loved, foods I thought weren't affecting me at all, were actually the very things blocking me from feeling better. And once I identified and removed those, my whole health started to shift. So that experience taught me something very important that sometimes what we think is the problem isn't really the root. And that's exactly what I want to unpack with you today. So by the end of this episode, you're gonna know exactly where to start: food or alcohol. And you'll walk away with some small concrete steps that you can put into practice right now. Little wins that are going to snowball into greater freedom. Now, before we get technical, let's name why this question, do I start with food or alcohol, matters so much. Most of us struggle both overeating and over drinking. They light up the same reward pathway in the brain, dopamine. So both can become quick comfort buttons when we're stressed, lonely, or bored. Different behaviors, the same wiring. That's why it can feel like whack-a-mole. You push one down and the other pops up. The risk is starting in the wrong place. It's like shoveling snow in a blizzard. You can spend a lot of effort, but the minute you turn around, the snow is right back on the driveway. Before my elimination diet, I was doing things mostly right. I was taking supplements, eating foods I thought were healthy, and getting to bed at a reasonable time. But nothing changed until I tested and removed the actual triggers. Now, here's a simple way to see why order matters. First, night A, no drink. You finish dinner, a sweet snack that sounds nice, but it's optional. You can take it or leave it. You tidy the kitchen, maybe read and pray, and your sleep is okay. Night B, with one drink, you have the same dinner, but now alcohol is in your system. And two things tend to happen. The first is that in the brain, alcohol reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex. That's the area that supports planning, judgment, and impulse control. So when a system is turned down, it's harder to stick with just one of anything. And then in the body, alcohol begins to disrupt normal glucose regulation. And that nudges sleep toward lighter, more fragmented cycles later that night. So now you put those two together and you get a very predictable chain. Stronger snack urges after the drink, more scrolling, later bedtime, lighter sleep, and that leads to a rougher morning. Same you, same values, and same intentions, but a different sequence of inputs on your brain and body. So this isn't about willpower or worth. It's about sequence and physiology. Pick the right starting place and you'll feel traction quickly. Pick the wrong one and it's spinning wheels. Lots of effort and little movement. So here's a little self-check you can do. Ask yourself these questions. On the nights you drink, do food boundaries get looser? Are your next mornings more foggy, even when you ate clean? Do you keep changing food rules but nights with alcohol undo them? If those resonate with you, if you are nodding your head yes, first I want you to know that there's nothing wrong with you. You're just gathering honest data. And honest data is a gift because it points to the most effective first step. I invite you to pray something like this Lord, bring light to what is really driving this and give me the grace to respond. That's why this matters. Choosing the right starting place is how we stop chasing symptoms and begin healing causes. Now, in the next section, I'm going to explain in simple terms what alcohol does in the brain and body that makes moderation of anything much tougher. And why, if alcohol is in the picture, addressing it first often makes food choices dramatically easier. Okay, so let's talk about alcohol versus food in the brain. First, it's important for you to know that alcohol enters the brain quickly. Alcohol is a small fat-soluble molecule, and that matters because the brain has this protective filter called the blood brain barrier, and that blocks out many substances and bacteria. So when alcohol or ethanol crosses that barrier, it does so rapidly. So brain levels rise within minutes, and that is why you feel the effects so fast. Now, what changes once it's in the brain? Alcohol is going to reduce activity in the prefrontal cortex, and that's the part of your brain responsible for planning, judgment, impulse control. And when that prefrontal cortex activity drops, it's simply harder to inhibit impulses. This is physiology, not a character flaw. It explains why just one often precedes extra snacking, late scrolling, or skipping your plan. Alcohol reaches the brain quickly and it lowers executive control. That combination makes other moderation much, much tougher. Now both food or sugar and alcohol trigger dopamine. Dopamine is the brain's motivation, that feel-good signal, but alcohol generates a much, much larger dopamine response, a dopamine spike way higher than typical foods. With repetition, the brain adapts by lowering the baseline reward activity. And that means that everyday pleasures feel muted or blunt for a little bit. Many women describe feeling flat without wine. That's because the reward system is recalibrating. It's not a moral failure. Now, if you've tried to remove alcohol for any length of time, you may have noticed that your food control gets harder. And there's three main reasons for that. First, alcohol is sedating, it disrupts sleep architecture. So you get less deep sleep and REM and more fragmented sleep. And so poor sleep equals an increase in cravings and reduced regulation for the next day. And then second, your stress and move rebound. So as alcohol clears, stress systems can rebound, producing edginess, low mood, irritability. The brain is seeking quick relief, and often sugar or refined carbs is what it goes for. And then the third is glucose regulation. Alcohol interferes with normal glucose balance, which can increase hunger and that drives cravings later in the evening. So 1 Peter 5.8 calls us to be sober-minded and watchful. Now, fragmented sleep and foggier cognition make that vigilance harder physically and spiritually. So I want to show you how it's all interconnected mind, body, and spirit. Another thing you might notice at first when alcohol is removed is that sweets can spike. This is totally normal and temporary. And the first reason is because of that dopamine dip. So when you stop a high dopamine behavior, like alcohol, the system briefly dips below its usual limit. And your brain is begging for a quick hit. Sweets are nearby, they're easy, and they're socially acceptable. So that's oftentimes what we'll reach for time and time again. And then the second thing is that habit slot, that neural pathway, that evening treat moment still exists. So even though you remove the wine, you still have that pathway. And if wine leaves, then sugar is just gonna slide in until the brain resets. Now, the good news is that as your sleep stabilizes and the baseline reward sensitivities normalize, which often take like one to three weeks, those urgent sweet cravings will usually fade. Now, you can ride out a two to three week window with some really practical and good swaps. The first is to make sure that you're getting protein and fiber earlier in the day. So aim for like palm-sized protein, eggs, Greek yogurt, chicken, legumes, those types of things. And then add that with a fist-size fiber portion, like berries, veggies, and things like that. The reason this helps is because a stable blood sugar equals less of those late-night quote-unquote emergencies or cravings. The other thing is to do a time-boxed sweet swap for 10 to 14 days. So what you're going to do is just choose a small planned sweet after dinner, whether that's fruit, Greek yogurt, and honey, or a square of dark chocolate, have that and then brush your teeth, and then just put a clear end date on when you're going to remove that. You know, if you want to. If it's just a little sweet, it's probably fine. But if that sweet leads to more and it makes it so it's you have that craving to deal with. The next thing is to have sleep guardrails. We want to make sure you're getting really good sleep. That means no phone in bed. I'm preaching to myself here, by the way. Cool dark room, realistic lights out time that you can actually hit. And that is going to help in so many ways, but just better sleep in general is going to help reduce the cravings. And then the last thing is to name your wins, no matter how big or how small. If you didn't drink, say I didn't drink tonight, and that single choice helps executive control rebound and makes your food or alcohol changes much easier the next time. So, how do you know if alcohol is the place to start? Ask yourself these four questions. First, do you eat more after drinking even one drink? Do your good food choices collapse on nights you drink? Are sleep, energy, and mood off despite otherwise solid nutrition? Do you keep hoping that food changes will fix it, but they don't stick? If you're nodding yes to most of those questions, then start with alcohol. Another thing you can do is a 72-hour experiment. It's simple, but it will help give you the awareness that you need. So go three days alcohol-free and jot down a 0 to 10 rating for each of these things. Sleep quality, evening food pressure, next morning energy and mood, sweet cravings, and your prayer focus. So if sleep energy and food pressure improve even 10 to 20% by day three or four, that is meaningful biology talking. So a couple months ago, I was able to sit down with my friend Denise Jelinick. I've had her on the podcast several times. So you can look her up and listen to her episodes here. But this time I got to be on her podcast, which is Weight Loss with the Holy Spirit, to talk about the question that she gets asked a lot as a food freedom coach, which is is food really the issue or is alcohol the hidden driver? Denise brought to the conversation a compassionate food freedom lens, and I brought the alcohol freedom lens. And together we were able to offer a faith-first practical approach. We covered how alcohol's quick entry into the brain affects impulse control, why cravings can intensify after just one, how to stabilize meals without all or nothing rules, how to pray into this with hope rather than shame. We talked about those dual addictions and a bunch of other stuff. So I will go ahead and link to that podcast episode in my notes as well. So when you remove alcohol, you may wonder what benefits am I going to see? What is actually going to start to improve? And a lot of things improve, but I'll break it down into four categories. So the first one is sleep quality. So you may have trouble falling asleep, especially if you use alcohol to fall asleep, but it does get better and it and you will start to notice, especially if you have a sleep tracker, that your quality of sleep is going to start improving. The other thing is, and we talked about this before, is your glucose will stabilize. It improves. So that means fewer urgent cravings and calmer evenings. Your executive control will start to rebound. So that prefrontal function helps you to follow your plan without white knuckling it. And then you're just going to experience spiritual clarity. It just will deepen for you. Your prayer, your discernment, accessibility to the Lord will just get much, much better and deeper as you remove alcohol. So when I removed the foods that were affecting me, I finally realized how poorly I'd been feeling. Sometimes we don't know how bad we feel until we start feeling good. And many women say the same thing when alcohol is out that they have clarity, they have steadiness, they have peace, they love their mornings again. And it's so great to hear. And I always tell them like, write that down so that you can look back on it and remember, because there are so many benefits. And sometimes they're very small and very subtle, but they are there. And the more distanced you get away from alcohol or the greater you can reduce alcohol, the better you're going to feel. And once it's removed or greatly reduced, you're going to start experiencing some of these things and realize how much alcohol was actually taking from you. Now, some of the little things you can look for are do you hit the snooze button less? Or maybe you're finding you even wake up before the alarm. And I'm not talking about 3 a.m. wakings. I'm talking about like naturally getting a good amount of sleep and waking up. You might notice that your snacking pressure is down. Like you don't have those intense cravings. They might go down one or two notches by week two. Your prayer time might feel less scattered, and you may find yourself making better decisions in the evening when it comes to snacking or not snacking. Okay, before we go, I'm going to give you just a framework for a seven-day starter plan. So this is just a seven-day pause. You're just gathering data. There, you don't need to have drama about it. It's just like a seven-day pause. Take a deep breath. It's good. You're good. You can do this. Okay. It's just seven days. I've already talked about a few of these things before, but as my mom likes to say, it bears repeating. The first thing you're going to do is start tracking a few things, and you're going to rate them from zero to 10. Zero is going to be very, very poor, and 10 is going to be the best ever. And you're going to be tracking your sleep, evening food pressure, your sweet, your sweet cravings, and your next morning energy and food. So track that for seven days. You can start on day one, you can start on day zero. So if you're listening to this with wine in your hand, you can still start tracking your sleep and all of those things, sleep and food pressure and all of that today and then or tomorrow morning. And then you can, you know, go forward for the next seven days. The second thing to do with the seven-day starter plan is you're going to want to plan for a short sweet surge. So just go ahead and allow yourself a planned sweet. Try to do it just after dinner. And it could be something healthy like fruit, Greek yogurt, and honey, or one square of chocolate. I mean, if you have something else, you have something else. But one thing that can be super, super helpful is to have whatever sweets you're having and then brush your teeth. That, I mean, for me, that will keep me from wanting to have more. I don't know if it will help you, but try it out. It might, it might work. The other thing is to stabilize early in the day. So stabilize those blood sugars early in the day. And you're going to do that by front loading with protein and fiber. So eggs and berries, Greek yogurt and oats, chicken and salad. That's going to stabilize your glucose during the day. And that is going to help you have calmer nights and less cravings. The next thing is to have a list of five to 10 resets that you actually like that you want to do. So that could be things like journaling or walking or stretching, playing a game. Just think of things that you like to do. Make a list, maybe write down how long it takes to do it. And when a craving comes up, then you can look at that list instead of trying to like think of something in the moment. Look at that list, pick something that is good for the the time that you have and also looks like something that you know you would want to do. The next thing is just to set some sleep boundaries, guard it like it's precious because it is. So that means no phone in bed. I'm talking to myself here. No phone in bed, cool dark room, and a lights out time that you can actually realistically hit. Then the last thing is scripture plus accountability. Take 1 Corinthians 6.12 somewhere where you can see it. You can shorten it if you want to, but go and read that verse and then post it wherever you will look. And then make sure that you have someone who you're accountable to, whether that's a friend or your spouse or your sister or whatever, you can have another layer of accountability just so you can say, hey, I'm checking in at five o'clock, I'm doing good, I'm having my mock tail, you know, whatever. And that can be really, really beneficial. Now, if you slip up and end up with a glass of wine in one hand and your phone in the other while watching refrigerator restock videos, I don't want you to spiral. It's not failure. This is just feedback, it's just data. Note it, adjust, and keep moving forward. My elimination process wasn't perfect. I tested it, I failed, I adjusted, and that's how I found what worked. The rhythm is the same here: awareness, remove, receive, relief, and repeat. So you need to start where biology says you'll get the biggest lift. If alcohol is in the mix and those questions lit up for you, begin there. Give your brain a week to reset. Expect a short, manageable rise in sweet cravings. It's not drama. Just expect it. Just plan for it. And then I want you to notice how sleep, reward sensitivity, and executive control starts to normalize, and your food choices start to get easier. With grace and good information, you can heal your mind, body, and soul. You can reduce or eliminate alcohol. And if you want support, join me in the Sacred Sobriety Lab. We bring together brain science, Catholic faith, and practical tools so that you can move from chaos to peace one small holy step at a time. Get curious and trust the Holy Spirit. And I will talk to you again next time. Well, that does it for this episode of the Catholic Sobriety Podcast. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I would invite you to share it with a friend who might also get value from it as well. And make sure you subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I am the Catholic Sobriety Coach, and if you would like to learn how to work with me or learn more about the coaching that I offer, visit my website, the Catholic Sobriety Coach.